Isn't it a shame that BOINC isn't multithreaded

Message boards : Questions and problems : Isn't it a shame that BOINC isn't multithreaded
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Timo

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Joined: 26 Aug 08
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Message 20218 - Posted: 13 Sep 2008, 13:27:09 UTC

Wouldn't it be nice for all cores to share one task, instead?

I have an Intel Q9450 2.67GHz quad core CPU.

On the longer Climate Prediction models it will take each core 1457 hours (121 days @ 12hrs a day) to complete each task. It's a long time to commit to. I'm always chopping up my operating system and shifting things around.

Would have been nice to have it do just one task in a quarter of the time by allowing the quad core to support multithreading. Then I can commit to tasks more temporarily and do one task in a quarter of the time, instead of having four on the go.

Am I alone in this? I know no-one's forcing me to do the tasks, but I really want to do them (albeit more conveniently).

Thanks, Tim
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Timo

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Message 20219 - Posted: 13 Sep 2008, 13:29:42 UTC
Last modified: 13 Sep 2008, 13:38:47 UTC

Just noticed this thread: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=3127

Would it be possible to suggest true multithreading (parallel processing) as a future software upgrade for BOINC?

One other benefit would be more efficient memory usage, as only one task is carried out at a time, as opposed to holding 2 or 4 tasks worth of memory at any one time depending on how many cores are being used.

If you'd like this feature, please post here and show the developers your support.

Thanks
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Keck_Komputers
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Message 20232 - Posted: 13 Sep 2008, 18:23:33 UTC

Multi-threading support is already in the version 6 clients (improvements due in 6.4.x). However none of the projects have a multi-threaded application yet.
BOINC WIKI

BOINCing since 2002/12/8
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Turboaaa

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Message 20235 - Posted: 13 Sep 2008, 20:21:49 UTC

That might be nice if if your only going to run 1 or 2 projects, but if you want parallel processing thats what your GPU is for.
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Les Bayliss
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Message 20238 - Posted: 13 Sep 2008, 20:36:10 UTC

It won't help with cpdn.
It took a couple of years to port the original program to desktops from supercomputers, and there are several newer programs now in use. And then there's the months of testing for each new model type.
And the project is already getting back so much data that it keeps running out of storage space.

Multithreading may be nice for people who want to get through the long models faster, but the project has other priorties.

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Message boards : Questions and problems : Isn't it a shame that BOINC isn't multithreaded

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